Red White, Blue Green, in Another World Unseen
by Kali Shima
Summary: A different take on the colorful miko couple. Reimu Hakurei is at the prime (?) of her high school life. She has a loving mother, caring friends, and average grades. Her life couldn't possibly be any better…until she meets a certain green-haired girl. AU High School Touhou Project. Slow burn Reimu x Sanae
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

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 _Early October, Year 20-_

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 _All around me, I saw the projectiles whiz by. They were beautiful, but they were also thrown with a sense of poor judgement. There was a bright flash of light, and I had the girl by the collar of her shirt. The battle was over before it even started, I thought. But even her defeat, the insolent intruder's green eyes defied me still._

 _"Our shrine is a million times better than yours," she snarled. I felt my eye twitch. I brought her closer to stare directly into those venomous and hateful eyes._

 _"Is that so?" I said coldly. "Then go and tell your Goddesses this: 'Welcome to Gensokyo.'"_

 _I raised my other hand. Her eyes widened, and the world blinked into darkness._

 _._

 _._

 _Fwap!_

.

.

"Ow!" Reimu Hakurei felt something papery hit her face. She bolted up in her futon and swatted the intrusive thing away.

"Reimu, it's time to get up," said a falsely sweet voice. Rubbing the afflicted spot, Reimu glared at the voice's owner.

"Did you have to wake me up with the fan, Mom?"

 _Fwap!_

Again, Reimu was met with the paper side of the instrument, although softer this time. But before she could grab it, the fan was pulled back and folded up, revealing a blonde-haired woman in a purple dress.

"Of course, dear." She said. "Without it, you wouldn't have your Mommy to wake you up. Every. Single. Day~"

Reimu nearly (but figuratively) vomited. She grabbed her pillow and threw it at the offending adult. But instead of colliding, it passed through a gap filled with eyes and landed on top of Reimu's head.

"Now, that wasn't nice," The other woman said.

"Ugh, get out of here!" Reimu nearly shouted. Hearing her daughter's naturally rebellious attitude up and ready, Reimu's mother readjusted her ribbon laced mobcap, made a small satisfied sound, and turned to make Reimu's lunch for the day.

Exhausted, Reimu fell back onto the lopsided pillow and closed her eyes. She didn't need to look at the digital clock near her head to know that it was 6:45 a.m. on the dot. _Like any other dreaded school day_ , Reimu thought. Only a month into the new semester at Genso High, and she was already tired of the routine. Get up early, go to school, return home, perform shrine maiden duties, do homework, study for any upcoming test, and repeat. She longed for the summer days where she lazed around, not caring one bit about life.

But, like any good and responsible child, she dutifully engaged in the monotonous cycle of learning. And like any good and responsible mother, Reimu's mom woke her up to make her go to school. Except she had the audacity to do it in the most irritating ways (For example, two weeks ago, she had been gapped out of bed and dumped in front of her school fully clothed, school backpack ready, and lunch in hand. That would have been good for Reimu, if not for the fact that it happened literally four hours before the school opened. Needless to say, she didn't speak to her mother for a few days after that).

 _Why did my mother have to be her_ , Reimu blearily thought. The famous Yukari Yakumo. The self-proclaimed seventeen year old (?) who had captivated her hometown Mayohiga with her dedication as a shrine maiden when she was younger. The same person who had declined world-wide fame and instead chose to settle down in Gensokyo to raise a family of her own. Now just a mother who constantly doted on and teased her daughter. That Yukari Yakumo.

Ugh, just thinking about her maiden name made Reimu feel ill. Not to mention, they didn't even look alike. Reimu greatly suspected that her black hair and looks came from her father. But he had apparently disappeared when she was just born. Yukari wouldn't talk about him and always feigned innocence whenever she tried asking about him.

 _Well, whatever_ , Reimu thought. She couldn't remember his face, nor had he been a big part of her life. But her mother was always there for her, it seemed like. She was there when she first tripped and scratched her knee, comforting the young girl. She was there when Reimu came crying to her room because of the earth-shattering loud thunderstorm that night. She was even there when Reimu was appointed to be the first Hakurei Shrine Maiden, personally bestowing her gohei and charms onto her. Inside, Reimu felt a little bit of warmth creep into her heart in gratefulness for her mother.

"Reimu, it's 7:15 a.m. If you don't hurry and get ready, I'll eat your breakfast again~"

…And what little warmth she had was instantly replaced with hatred. Reimu groaned and began fumbling around for her signature red ribbon.

.

.

"Wow, Reimu, you look worn out already."

"Shove it, Marisa."

Reimu was now sitting at her assigned desk at the back of Classroom 1A with her head in her arms. Marisa Kirisame, the blonde hair witch-in-training/friend, was also sitting in front of her and looking back. Around them, the other students milled about and chatted with one another, waiting for the first bell to ring. Marisa grinned and ruffled Reimu's head.

"Just saying. Ms. Kazami's not going to be happy if you're still like this later, ze." Reimu raised her head slightly.

"Wrong. She only cares that _you_ aren't dozing off in her class."

"What? No way! Did you see what happened to Wiggle after she didn't do her homework last week?"

Before Reimu could reply back, the bell rang. She lowered her head again as the first class of the day began. With boring History. As Keine Too-Long-of-Last-Name started to lecture, she dozed off into her daily nap.

.

.

"Must be nice being able to sleep and be ignored by the teacher," Marisa remarked.

"Being liked by nearly every one of them helps," Youmu Konpaku commented, and the tall girl next to her with rabbit ears sticking out of her head nodded in assent.

Reimu finished off her juice box and threw it in the trash can behind her. When she woke up again, it was already the end of 2nd period and the beginning of the mid-morning break. Their other friends, Youmu and Reisen "Udongein" Inaba walked over from their seats to talk with Reimu and Marisa.

"Not if you had my life," she said. "Does getting woken up in the worst ways possible by a lunatic of a mother, going to school only to get homework and tests, and having to act as the current shrine maiden afterwards sound nice?"

Marisa shrugged as Udonge spoke up.

"Honestly, I prefer that compared to how I get treated at home. If I'm lucky, my Master will forget to mix experimental drugs into my lunch." She sighed pitifully. "She never forgets."

Marisa turned towards Youmu.

"How about you, Youmu?" The white haired girl shrugged.

"I cook, and she eats." The blonde haired girl looked back at Reimu.

"See, Reimu? Servant life sucks hard, ze."

"I'll believe it when I experience it," Reimu said, rubbing her eyes.

Above them, the bell rang, signaling the start of the next session of classes. Youmu and Udonge went back to their seats, and Reimu and Marisa prepared themselves for a long Math period with Ms. Kazami.

.

.

"I swear, that woman deserves every single title that we give her," Marisa grumbled.

"What, you mean 'Yuuka the Destroyer' and 'Ultimate Sadistic Creature'?"

"Those, and much more."

Reimu smirked at the blonde-haired girl.

"I told you she only cares about you paying attention." Marisa merely ate her sandwich faster.

It was now lunchtime. Reimu, Marisa, Youmu, and Reisen were eating at their favorite spot on the rooftop of the school. It was their special place, where they were able to escape the confines of the classroom and watch the grounds of the school and surrounding buildings from above. Patchouli Knowledge and Alice Margatroid, their other friends from another class, were also there. Reimu picked a piece from her bento and chewed on it, savoring the taste. At least her meals made by her mother weren't bad. As she ate, she listened to the others talk.

"Yo, Alice, can I get a drink from your thermos, ze?"

"S-sure, Marisa."

"You can also drink from mine, Marisa!"

"Hey, Youmu, did you understand what Ms. Kazami was saying?"

"Nope."

 _Hack! Cough, cough!_ Udonge started to choke after eating a tiny piece from her bento. Literally green in the face, she pulled her bottle of water and a few pills from her backpack and drank the healing mixture.

"Ugh…"

Presently, all conversations converged towards a single, recent event.

"Hey, did you hear? Mokou was confessed to yesterday! But she turned him down!"

"Well, of course. Everyone knows she's in love with the History teacher, ze."

"Almost like how you and Ms. Kazami are, right?"

"Hell no!"

"Yea, Marisa is in love with-" Both Alice and Patchouli started to say and stopped. They glared at each other while the blonde-haired girl in question looked at Reimu with a sly glint in her eyes.

"What you think, Reimu?"

"Good for her," Reimu said simply. Marisa feigned shock.

"What, that's all? No outspoken, outraged reaction from our resident shrine maiden? Mokou probably broke that poor sap's heart!"

Reimu snorted at the idea of Mokou Fujiwara actually caring about that kind of stuff. Breakings hearts, that was.

"Maybe Reimu's in love with someone," Udonge teased. Reimu looked appalled.

"Personally, if I were to fall in love (which, by the way, is impossible), I would prefer someone who was caring, thoughtful of others, and can cook," Reimu said. "None of which any guy here are or can do."

Alice put a finger to her chin in thought.

"Actually, I think there is someone like what you described in our class."

"Eh?"

"Oh, but she isn't a guy. Her name is Sanae Kochiya. A lot of us think she's the most caring out of all of us. Also one of the better students who can actually cook a meal."

"Huh…"

"Wow. If she can cook, then I think I'm in love, too, ze!"

"Wait. I can cook just as well or even better than her, Marisa!"

"M-me too!"

"What? I've seen you in Home Econ, Patchouli. You can't cook!"

As the doll-maker and purple magician squabbled over the blonde-haired witch again, the conversation again moved on to other unimportant things.

.

.

Reimu always looked forward to the class periods directly after lunch, as she had Physical Education. Yuugi Hoshiguma, the PE instructor, did not care what they did as long as they were moving around and getting exercise. And for Reimu, that meant being able to fly and play danmaku.

She loved to fly more than anything else. It was the way the wind blew around her and senses of thrill she got in her stomach. Though, if she had to put it, she was not as elegant as Alice was or as fast as Aya Shameimaru. However, she was the best at dodging, and she often played as dodger/attacker while her opponents streamed projectiles at her. After an hour, Ms. Hoshiguma blew the whistle, and the fliers settled back down onto the ground. Reimu had worked up a light sweat after flying and dodging for so long, so she took a quick rinse in the showers before heading to her last period of the day.

Although Reimu was grateful that the class was not graded, she never quite saw the importance of Home Economics. She always questioned for whom was she cleaning and cooking for. Certainly not for the guys, and it didn't help that they always acted bizarre whenever they made something (senior student Rinnosuke Morichika, for instance, had been permanently banned from the school's kitchen and labelled a pervert by all of the female student body after harassing several classes). Maybe for her own benefit, but she liked to think that she was already able to live alone and take care of herself. Anyways, the good parts about the class were that most of the class time was spent waiting for the food to finish cooking or baking, and she was able to take home whatever she made. Only on occasion were they lectured for the full hour about the importance of cleanliness or bacteria.

Today, they were going to bake some cupcakes. Using the school's large kitchen, they quickly made the soft and smooth batter and poured it into the provided molds. As they waited for them to puff into small and delicious edibles, Hijirin Byakuren lectured them for about half of the class period about keeping a workstation clean before and after using it. For the rest of the period, she let them talk or do homework. By the time the class was over, the cupcakes were done baking. Reimu thought hers turned out ok. At least, they tasted and looked good. Marisa's batch, though, was burnt to crisps.

"Aha, must've turned up the heat to high," she said.

And so Reimu's day ended amicably well. She now stood with Marisa, Youmu, and Udonge outside of the kitchen. They chatted for a little while as the streams of leaving students passed them steadily. Finally, they felt like it was time to go.

"See you tomorrow Reimu!"

"Bye, Reimu!"

Reimu waved goodbye to her friends and turned around to go in the other way. The Hakurei Shrine was in the opposite direction of the residential district and school, and so on days when she didn't hang out with Marisa and some other friends, she went towards the school's smaller entrance to get home in a slightly faster manner. She raised and jiggled the small, clear bag of cupcakes and smiled a little; she had a late night snack to look forward to, provided that her mother didn't get to them first. As she was staring at them, she heard a noise.

 _Fwisshh!_

Someone ahead of her had accidently dropped a large stack of papers, scattering them across the floor. Being the only one around, Reimu went to help and knelt down near the spilt paper. She saw that they were tests from Classroom 1b; it was the class both Patchouli and Alice were in. She gathered up a large amount and stacked them back into a neater pile.

"Ah, th-thank you," she heard. Reimu saw that it was a girl who had dropped them. She had long, green hair with a strange frog and snake hairclip set. Her face was also red from embarrassment.

"Do you need help carrying it?" Reimu asked.

"Oh, if you would, please! " The girl said. Reimu nodded. After gathering about half the paper, she followed the girl towards her destination. It turned out to be administration office. Not seeing the secretary present, the girl and Reimu decided to put them into the teacher's slot and go. Once outside, the green-haired girl turned to Reimu and bowed.

"Thank you so much for helping!"

"You're welcome," Reimu said, she turned to go.

"Um, if it's not a bother, may I ask what your name is?" Reimu paused and looked back at the girl.

"It's Reimu," she said. The girl smiled.

"Nice to meet you, Reimu. I'm Sanae," she said.

"Sanae…Sanae Kochiya?" The girl nodded.

 _Huh…_ , Reimu thought. She opened her bag of cupcakes and fished out one of the small treats. She held it out the other girl, who looked at it in surprise.

"Nice to meet you, too, Sanae."

Hesitating a little, the green-haired girl took the cupcake and thanked Reimu again. Reimu nodded, and she finally went on her way.

Sanae watched as Reimu walked down the hallway. As the black-haired girl turned around the corner and disappeared from sight, she bit into the cupcake.

"Oh, sweet!"

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	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 _One month after Chapter 1_

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"Reimu, wake up."

"Nnn…" Reimu murmured. With her head down in her arms, Reimu thought that she heard her name being called by someone.

"Reimu," the voice said again, only a little more urgently.

The black haired girl squeezed her eyes harder and buried her head down more. Right now, she didn't want to be disturbed.

" _Rei_ -"

"Is there something you want to tell the whole class, Kirisame?"

"No-no, Miss Kazami."

"Are you sure? It looked important enough to bother Miss Hakurei about it."

Instead of answering, Marisa wilted down in her seat. Satisfied that she had silenced the insufferable witch, Yuuka Kazami smiled evilly, pushed up her glasses, and resumed lecturing. Only dimly aware of what had just happened, Reimu slipped back into her nap again.

.

.

"I hope that woman dies in her sleep one day, so that we don't have to hear her lecture ever again," Marisa grumbled.

It was now noon, or lunchtime for Class 1A of Genso High. As usual, Reimu and her group of friends had congregated on the school's roof to eat. The lunar rabbit Reisen looked at her warily.

"Why does she hate you so badly anyways?"

"Probably because I had sneaked into her house a few days before the start of the semester and stole one of her parasols," Marisa replied immediately. "And I will say, it's a pretty good umbrella when it rains, da-ze."

"If you don't want her haggling you, you should return it to her," Reimu said indifferently.

"What? No way, finders keepers! And besides, she doesn't know that I stole it," Marisa responded, looking appalled.

"I beg to differ," Youmu muttered under her breath. Alice shook her head in disappointment, and Reisen sighed. Reimu continued eating her sandwich, not caring one bit.

"Oh right, that reminds me," the witch continued. She turned towards Reimu.

"I was going to say that you had missed an important announcement in first period. We're going to be doing a research project in Keine's class."

Reimu swallowed her mouthful of food.

"We are?" Reimu said, frowning.

"Yea. And apparently we're getting partners from Class 1B."

Both Alice and Patchouli perked up at the mention of their class.

"W-wait. This is the first time that I heard of this!"

"Well, of course. You both have your history class after lunch," Marisa mentioned offhandedly.

"Pick me, Marisa!"

"No way. I can find information faster than Patchouli can, Marisa!"

"!"

Reimu sighed as the usual quarrel over Marisa began anew. She looked directly at her magical friend.

"And the catch?"

"They're assigned to us already, ze."

The two girls beside Marisa suddenly stopped mid-fighting. They let go of the other's ear.

"Then, who are you assigned to, Mari-" Alice began.

"Hatate."

Reimu heard two disappointed thumps as the two magic users dropped down into their sitting positions in mutual defeat. Unfortunately for her, though, she needed a little more information.

"And my partner?"

Marisa leaned back and smiled. Reimu knew that look and pose all too well.

"…Taiyaki afterschool," she added tersely.

"Two."

Reimu scowled, but she assented.

"Fine."

"Your partner is Akyuu," Marisa replied. Upon hearing the name, Reimu laughed.

"No way, seriously?"

Akyuu Hieda was a quiet girl who sat in the front in Class 1B. She also happened to be the go-to expert on anything history-related and was Keine's most favorite student. In other words, Reimu would have no trouble acing this history project, with flying colors even.

"Yea, well, Hatate isn't too bad either when it comes down to it," Marisa mumbled. It was clear that she was a little miffed that she had not gotten Akyuu as her partner.

Reimu returned back to her sandwich, her mood noticeably happier and better.

.

.

The rest of the school day passed by in a blink, and Reimu treated Marisa to taiyaki as promised. Briskly walking towards the local sweet shop, they made it before the hordes of other students looking for a snack afterschool could get there.

"I've been looking forward to this," Marisa relished, and she bit into the delicious sweet with gusto.

"I should hope so, because I'm not going to do this again for you," Reimu warned, but she enjoyed eating her own treat all the same.

They ate and chatted for a while about random things, but soon, Reimu had to go home and start her daily shrine maiden duties. Waving goodbye to Marisa, she turned around and launched herself upwards to fly back home.

.

.

It was a few minutes before she reached the Hakurei Shrine. Arriving above the building, Reimu floated down and lightly landed in front of their donation box. One of her duties was to check the box for money, and so she proceeded to do so. Her eyes lit up when she saw something at the bottom, but it was only a crumpled piece of paper. She sighed. Lately, the donations had been coming in less and less. Although she kept a sharp eye out for robbers, it just seemed that people had been slowly stopped coming to the shrine (and donating). Reimu reached in and grabbed the offending piece of rubbish. She unfolded it and saw a poorly written message on it.

Deciphering the words, the paper read "Please help me make up with my friend." It appeared that a little kid had hastily written a prayer and then put it in the donation box. Sighing again, Reimu folded the paper up.

As much as she would love to help him or her (as in, she couldn't), they also weren't exactly the kind of shrine. According to her mom, the Hakurei Shrine's purpose was to "exterminate youkai." Except no youkai in any shape or form had ever appeared in Gensokyo. Or, if they had, they haven't caused any problems so far.

When Reimu was first appointed as the Hakurei shrine maiden, she had kept a diligent watch for these supposed youkai. She researched and imbedded in her mind what they generally looked like; monstrous ghostly, and sometimes wiggly beings. But as the years passed by without any major incidents, she began to suspect that her mom had been pulling her leg and couldn't think of a good enough reason by the time she was called up to give Reimu her gohei and charms at the ceremony. Yukari denied it, of course, but the knowing smiles she gave whenever Reimu accused her of lying only made the teenage girl suspect her of it even more.

So, she didn't really know what the actual point of her shrine was. But the donations helped put food on the table, and that was all that mattered. Reimu tucked the letter into her backpack to throw away later and stared at the box again. She wondered if she should start sweeping the shrine grounds or preparing a new offering first. Pity she didn't have any more taiyaki with her. Suddenly, she heard a noise off to her right.

"Reimuuu!"

 _Thump!_

"Urgh!" Reimu made a sound as something collided with her side. It wrapped its arms around and nuzzled her. The thing's ears twitched in delight, and its two tails wiggled happily. Upon seeing the culprit, Reimu smiled and petted the bakeneko on the head. The small girl purred a little at the feeling of Reimu's hands in return.

"Hey Chen," the older girl said. She heard another voice call out.

"Chen, where are you?"

A taller woman walked around the corner and entered Reimu's view. She wore a long purple dress and a styled mob cap. Nine furry fox tails were displayed from behind her, and her fox ears twitched a little in annoyance.

"Chen, please don't run off so suddenly," she said, sighing. She noticed Reimu standing in front of her and bowed.

"Oh, hello Miss Hakurei."

"It's Reimu, Ran. Really, I wonder why you insist on doing that," Reimu remarked, faking a stern look.

"Because you are Yukari's most important daughter," Ran replied with respect, and she bowed again.

As far as Reimu could remember, the older woman had been with them for a long time, even coming to Gensokyo with them. She knew that when she was younger, Ran often babysat her whenever her mom went to work. In a way, she was like a second mom to her. But even now, Reimu was still unsure of their actual relationship with her mom. At times, she acted like a family friend, and at other times, she was like their faithful servant.

Reimu felt Ran's daughter pull on her school uniform to grab her attention.

"Hey, Reimu. Let's go to the playground!" Chen chirped excitedly. Reimu painfully smiled, as the playground was down the hill that she had just flown up.

"Er, sorry Chen, I have to-" Reimu began to say.

"Well, why don't you Reimu? It would be nice for you to spend some time with her," Ran interrupted.

"But I-"

" _I'll_ take care of the shrine," Ran affirmed. "Well, just for today. Now, go play with Chen."

Reimu sighed as Chen cried out happily. Hoisting her school bag, she walked pass Ran to go through the sliding doors of the shrine/home and change into a casual shirt and shorts. After five minutes, she was ready, and she followed the small, and excited cat girl down the steps of the shrine.

There were actually two playgrounds in Gensokyo. One was in the heart of the human city. The other one was smaller and near the elementary school that Chen went to. But the smaller playground was closer to the shrine, and so they headed towards that one. Soon, they reached the place, and Reimu saw that a few children and their respective parents were there already. One of the younger kids noticed them and waved her hand.

"Cheeennnn!"

The bakeneko waved back and bounded over to her friend.

 _So much for playing together_ , Reimu thought sarcastically. She looked around for a place to sit and wait. Spying a spot, she made her way over to the benches on the sides of the area and sat down on one of them.

For a while, she watched them play in the kid-friendly space, climbing over the jungle gym and dirtying themselves in the sand pits. She frowned as quite a bit of dirt spilled into Chen's shoes as she shoveled a hole.

"Yahoo, Reimu!"

Reimu looked up and saw a girl with long black wings and a small cap waving at her from a distance above her. A smaller girl with similar wings and wearing a similar cap was by her side. Reimu lazily waved back, and the black-winged pair descended down to where she was sitting.

"I didn't think you were one to watch little kids, Reimu," the taller girl said.

Reimu sighed internally. Aya Shameimaru was sometimes a hassle to deal with. Being the president of Genso High's newspaper club, she had all kinds of access to information and forbidden knowledge. But more often than not, the _Bunbunmaru_ newspaper was filled with lies, pointless articles, and distasteful paparazzi. Reimu didn't understand why the vice president, Hatate Himekaidou, followed her like a baby…well, like a baby crow.

"For your information, I'm only watching one certain girl and making sure that she doesn't get into trouble," Reimu said tartly.

At the word "information", Aya skillfully took out a small notepad and a pen from somewhere behind her. She jotted down what Reimu had just said.

"Got it. The Infamous Red Shrine Maiden Caught On the Prowl. Who Is She Stalking?" Aya brainstormed out loud, already imagining the headline. Reimu rolled her eyes.

"So, what's up?"

"We were, uh, just passing," Hatate nervously spoke up. Aya closed her notepad and put it back in its hidden pocket.

"Uhuh…" Reimu said, disbelieving her. Recalling the lunch conversation fro earlier, she directed her next sentence at the girl.

"So, I heard you were paired up with Marisa for this history project."

Although Hatate smiled a bit in response, her wings visibly dropped.

"Ahaha…," she weakly laughed. "I guess I'll just have to work harder, for both our sakes…"

Reimu almost felt sorry for her. While Marisa wasn't the worse student in their year, she was ranked pretty far down the list. She looked at Aya instead, who was adjusting her cap.

"How about you?"

"I'm with Youmu," the other girl replied nonchalantly. "But I'm not so picky about partners."

Aya paused and then suddenly pulled the other crow closer to her side.

"Well, perhaps when it comes to this one only."

"A-aya," Hatate stammered, blushing furiously.

"Ah!"

 _Thud._

Reimu heard a cry and looked back to where Chen was playing. Chen had ran and tripped over the low sandbox edge while getting out of it, falling down onto the harder and grittier ground beneath her. When she stood up, Reimu saw that her knees had scraped a little. Chen started to sniffle a little, and tears appeared at the corner of her eyes.

"Uwaa…"

"Oh dear."

Reimu quickly got up and walked over to the crying girl. She knelt down and closely inspected the knee. It was very dirty from the dirt and sand, and she saw a little red lines begin to appear and bleed. Reimu raised her hands to wipe them away and then hesitated. She didn't want the small wounds to get infected and leave scars behind, but she didn't have any Band-Aids or a first aid pack with her.

Instead, she gathered up her shirt's edge and she gently wiped the small cuts and scrapes with it, making sure not to blend the dirt in too much. Ran will have to properly clean it later.

Feeling that she had done the best she could, Reimu let her stained makeshift cloth fall and wrapped her arms around Chen to soothe her.

"There, there," she murmured, patting Chen on the back. "It's just a small fall."

Comforted by the older girl, Chen soon stopped crying and sniffled only occasionally. Reimu suddenly became aware of the eyes and smiles of the other parents on her, who had watched the scene unfold.

"Aw, just like a caring older sister would do!"

"How lovely!"

* _Click_ * * _Snap_ * * _Snap_ *

Reimu's face grew red as she heard the telltale sounds of a few cameras going off. She turned her head and saw that Aya and Hatate had already disappeared with their prize. She groaned inwardly. It was going to be a very long day when the school newspaper came out again. She only hoped that whatever pictures they took wouldn't be on the front page.

"Reimu?"

The older girl heard Chen's voice and turned her head back towards her. She saw that Chen had fully calmed down and was looking at her with still puffy eyes. Smiling a little, she wiped the rest of the tears away with her sleeve.

"Better now?" Chen nodded and hugged Reimu back.

"Thank you Reimu!"

"Mhm," Reimu said awkwardly.

Not wanting to stay any longer, Reimu beckoned for the bakeneko to say goodbye to her friend. And they take off into the air to fly back to the shrine and have Ran look at Chen.

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 _The Next Day_

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.

Reimu laid her head down on her desk and sighed. Another day of school. Another day of boring History. She heard the rustling of other students coming in and chatter among themselves. All of it was started to cause her a slight headache, and she scowled.

 _Don't they realize it's freaking 8 in the morning_ , Reimu thought. Soon, though, she heard the bell ring outside in the hallway and the sliding door close to signal the start of the day. Her classmates got into their assigned seats, and Keine's voice rang out clearly in the classroom.

"Good morning, class! I have a new announcement to make regarding the history project."

Keine paused before continuing.

"After some…persuasion from some of your fellow students in another class, I have decided to redo the partner pairings."

A low murmur rose up, and Reimu lifted her head up slightly to hear better. The were-hakutaku cleared her throat and looked down at her sheet.

"Ahem. Mokou Fujiwara, you are with Kaguya Houraisan."

"Ehhhh?"

"Reimu Hakurei, you are with Sanae Kochiya."

At this, Reimu's ears perked up, and she raised her head. The name sounded familiar, but she could not place where she had heard it. She looked directly at Keine for an explanation, but she had already moved on, continuing down the roster and naming the new pairings.

"Marisa Kirisame…"

Here, Keine took another breath.

"You have both Alice Margatroid and Patchouli Knowledge."

"Eh? Why do I have two partners, da-ze?"

"Well, that's just how the roster turned out," Keine stated, but Reimu could see her distaste dripping off of what she just said.

 _So it was those two that had "persuaded" her,_ Reimu thought wryly. When it came to Marisa, they would do anything to get close to her. Hell, they probably begrudgingly banded together after lunch knowing that they had a better chance that way.

Marisa leaned back and shrugged. For her, having two partners was a benefit and much, much less work for her in the end.

"Youmu Konpaku with Hatate Himekaidou"

"Er…"

And so on and so forth till Keine reached the last name.

"And last but not least, Sumeriko Usami, you are partners with Satori Komeiji."

Keine put down her list and clapped her hands.

"Some of you may be friends already, but some of you may not have ever met your partner before. Therefore, I would like all of you to spend the first five minutes or so of the lunch break to meet and greet with your partners. I already told Classroom 1b yesterday, and they can expect the same from you."

And with that, Keine picked up her history textbook, flipped to the bookmarked page, and started to lecture.

At this point, Reimu would have fallen asleep. But she was intrigued. The name Sanae Kochiya had struck familiarity with her, and it bothered her. And for once she listened to Keine lecture for the whole period, awaiting the start of the lunch break and the chance to meet her new partner.

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	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

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 _*RRRINGGGG*_

Reimu blinked. One minute, she had been listening to Yuuka Kazami pound quadratic functions into their heads, and in the next, her own head was down in her arms and feeling like she had just woken up a very long nap. And it was lunchbreak. She groaned inwardly, realizing that she will probably never get through the morning without falling asleep at least once. She raised her head and noticed that all of her classmates were already getting up and packing their things or taking out their lunches. Two hands suddenly slapped down in front of her.

"Yo, Reimu! How was almost staying awake through the morning?"

Reimu turned her head around to see Marisa grinning at her. She glared at her as best she could through her haze.

"Shove it, Marisa," she lethargically replied. The other girl laughed.

"Come on. Don't want to keep our partners waiting, ze," She said.

Reimu rolled her eyes but didn't comment any further. She quickly rubbed away the remaining traces of sleep on her face and packed up her half-filled notebook, textbook and pencil. With one final zip, Reimu lifted up her schoolbag and rose up from her seat to leave the room with Marisa. They walked over to the nearest entrance to their classroom and stepped out.

…Or had tried to. The hallway was jam packed with students from Classroom 1A and Classroom 1B who were trying to find their partners. Although some of their fellow classmates had been paired up with a friend or a familiar face, many were not. People shouted out names and jostled one another in an attempt to get to the other side. And that was not counting the other students from different classes and grades who were also trying to get through. It was chaos compacted into one narrow hallway that had only a width of five people shoulder-to-shoulder. Reimu and Marisa looked at each other.

"After you," Marisa offered after a few seconds of observing the mess.

"I believe you were the one who was eager to go out there," Reimu countered.

Marisa grinned.

"You're right," she said but made no indication that she was going to move.

Reimu leaned against the doorway and sighed. When push came to shove, don't bother. For a while, they watched as the crowd of students moved to and fro, like a frothing wave at sea. Reimu especially looked out for anything that might jog her mind about what Sanae Kochiya looked like. She vaguely remembered something that had to do with her hair, but the thought evaded her.

"Oh, there you are, Marisa!"

Reimu heard a voice and a door clatter open. She turned her head to see Alice enter their classroom from the other end of the room. Patchouli was close to follow. The two girls both grabbed one of Marisa's arms.

"Teehee, surprised?" Alice lightly teased. "We, uh, overheard that you didn't like having Hatate as your partner, so Patchouli and I asked Kamishirasawa-sensei to be your partners."

"Well, you know what they say. Two heads are better than one," Marisa stated, happily grinning in the presence of them.

"Don't you mean 'three'?" Reimu corrected.

"Yea, three too."

"We need to meet Kamishirasawa-sensei now," Patchouli spoke up. Marisa raised her eyebrows and looked at the purple haired girl on her right.

"Oh, why?"

At that, Alice gently squeezed Marisa's left arm to draw her attention.

"We're kind of a special case. There aren't any other three person groups for this project, so Kamishi… _Keine_ -sensei wanted us to meet her together during lunch at the teacher's lounge," she explained. "She wanted to talk to you and make, ah, some ground rules clear and understood."

"Rules? Like what?"

"We're expected to all contribute an equal or fair share of work. The research topic has to be adequate enough for three people, and we all have to write a reflective one pager at the end commenting on the research process and each other's cooperation," Patchouli relayed with her perfect memory. "And unlike other groups, we will have a much longer time to present and are expected to present during the whole duration."

"Um…"

"Kamishirasawa-sensei finally said, and I quote, 'And if Marisa tries to weasel her way out of this project or fails to do her part, then I'm going to _personally_ spend the all of the upcoming summer cramming her head full of history,'" Patchouli finished.

"Whattt?!"

Marisa blanched at the blatant threat under the guise of learning. It was well known how the history teacher taught in personal teacher-on-students sessions. Mainly, head-butting them till they got 100% on their practice tests.

The witch looked helplessly back at Reimu, who merely smirked at her. It served her right for thinking that she would get a free pass. Keine had probably saw her chance to make the girl work harder than usual through this special circumstance. Seeing no aid come to her side, Marisa gulped and turned back at the two other girls attached to her arms.

"W-well then, lead on, Alice, ze" she said shakily. The puppeteer smiled and started to lead her resigned beloved through the door. By now, the sea of students had dissipated a little, allowing them to squeeze in.

While indulging in her friend's uncovered misfortune, Reimu almost forgot that Alice and Patchouli were both in Class 1B. She stuck her head out the doorway and just saw her friends walking off to the left.

"Hey," she quickly called out, "Do you know what Sanae Kochiya looks like?"

"Oh, she's easy to spot. Just look out for green hair and a frog hairclip," Alice yelled back over her shoulder. The trio of girls soon disappeared around the corner.

Reimu waited a bit longer before shifting her bag and also stepped out of her classroom. By now, the hallway was well clear of any students and much easier for her to spot her partner. However, she could not see any sort of green hair among the lingering teenagers. She walked over to Classroom 1B to have a look, but none of the students there also had green hair. The shrine maiden became slightly concerned, wondering if she had somehow missed her partner in the bodily chaos from before. As she was pondering, a hand tapped her shoulder.

"Um, are you Reimu Hakurei?" A polite voice asked behind her. Reimu turned and saw a girl looking at her with questioning eyes. She had green hair and the strange snake and frog hairclip duo, which were eerily familiar to her.

"Um, yea. Are you Sanae Kochiya?" Reimu replied back. The other girl nodded, smiling in relief.

"Yes. Oh, thank goodness. I wasn't sure if you were still around. A lot of people said that you usually wore a large red ribbon, so I looked for that. But, I was waiting in my classroom until the hallway cleared up a bit and then went looking for you down at the other end. I guess we just missed each other."

"I guess so," Reimu remarked. It would explain how she appeared behind her. "Just wondering, but have we met before? I feel like I've seen you somewhere."

"Mmm, maybe. I think some time ago, you helped me pick up and deliver some papers," Sanae tried to recall, thoughtfully touching her cheek. She brightly lit up. "Oh yea, the cupcake you gave me was delicious! Thanks for that."

"You're welcome," Reimu said, surprised. Unfortunately, she didn't remember giving the other girl a cupcake.

"So, what do you want to do for the research project?" Sanae asked.

Reimu opened her mouth to reply and then closed it. At the end of her lesson this morning, Keine-sensei had passed out a handout with a large list of topics. Interestingly enough, not all of them had to do with history. Some of them were familiar things, like the founding of Gensokyo and Japanese agriculture. But many of them were foreign and bizarre sounding, like Sumerian cuneiform and Greek fire. In addition, if there was a topic that wasn't listed but you were greatly interested, you could bring it up to Keine-sensei and go over logistics and intentions with her.

"I don't know. Anything might be good," she said slowly. "What about you?"

"I'm kind of partial to any of the food topics. Those sound easy enough to do," Sanae replied. "But we don't have to decide right now. I think Kamishirasawa-sensei said that we would have time to choose in the next two days. Are you available afterschool today?"

"I can meet for an hour. But then I have to go home and do my shrine maiden duties," Reimu answered. It occurred to her that her schedule was going to be a bit hard to coordinate with her partner. But Sanae was not off put by it. Rather…

"No way! You're a shrine maiden?" The green haired girl exclaimed excitedly. "I am too!"

"Really? For what shrine?"

"Moriya Shrine."

"The one with the huge pillars and ponds and lakes on the other side of town?" Reimu clarified.

The other girl nodded, a fond smile appearing on her face.

"It's kind of a new shrine, but my goddesses have worked very hard to earn the faith from the people since we came to Gensokyo a few years ago. You should visit us some time!"

"Maybe I will," Reimu said, wincing a little internally. She had actually visited the Moriya Shrine once during the previous summer for a casual look, and it made the Hakurei Shrine look like a tiny rundown hovel. The Moriya Shrine was also a massive landmark in Gensokyo, dutifully signifying how many citizens believed in the Goddesses that resided there. She didn't go outside for a few days out of shame and embarassment.

Still cringing, Reimu looked at the Classroom 1B clock and noticed that she had a little less than half the lunch break to eat. She shifted her schoolbag and turned back to Sanae.

"I think we should talk more about this later. Where do you want to meet afterschool?"

"Hmm. How about in front of the school library?" Sanae suggested.

Reimu nodded, "Sure. See you then?"

"Yep. It was great meeting you, Reimu," Sanae cheerfully said.

"You too, Sanae," Reimu replied back. They waved goodbye and went their separate ways to go to lunch.

As Reimu headed upwards to the rooftop, she briefly thought about her first impression of her partner. The other girl was very likeable and pleasant to be around. It also looked like she was a hard worker, considering her role as a shrine maiden and her attentiveness about the research project. Reimu thought that they would manage fairly well for the project.

Upon nearly reaching her destination, she found her group of friends taking shelter from the cold and sitting on the steps leading up to the rooftop door. Youmu and Reisen were talking to each other, and Alice, Patchouli, and Marisa had arrived before her. The two magicians were calmly eating their lunches while the witch looked a little zoned out, chewing her sandwich languidly. Alice waved to her when she noticed Reimu.

"Hey Reimu. How was meeting your partner?" She greeted.

"It was fine," the shrine maiden said. She put her stuff next to Marisa and sat down on the lower step from her. She took out her bento and picked out her first chopstick-full of food.

"How was meeting Keine-sensei?" Reimu asked before starting on her lunch. She quickly ate through her food before the lunch break could end.

Marisa scowled and finished off the rest of her sandwich in a single bite. She angrily chewed and swallowed before answering. "Awful, ze. She is now officially worse than Kazami-sensei."

Patchouli just rolled her eyes and turned towards Reimu. "It went well. Keine just repeated what I said earlier, although a bit sterner than usual."

"Sterner from your point of view. She glared at me the whole time!"

"So, what topics are you guys going to do?" Reisen joined in. Three different voices rang out at the same time.

"Library of Alexandria."

"The Salem Witch Trials."

"Bunraku."

Alice, Patchouli, and Marisa all looked at each other as Reimu snorted into her lunch.

"Why do you want to learn about Japanese Puppet Theater? It's so boring and lame," Marisa exclaimed.

"It's not lame! It was a legitimate topic that was listed on the paper that would be worth researching," Alice defended.

"Of course, _totally not_ because of the fact that you're a doll fanatic, ze" Marisa sarcastically pointed out.

"Better than picking a topic that you have no idea about other than having 'witch' in the name," the doll fanatic rebutted.

"I personally think that the Library of Alexandria would give us a better thirst for knowledge," Patchouli said.

"Hell no it won't!"

"…I guess you'll pick on something later," Youmu summarized as the three girls descended into a quarrel over the most interesting, factual, and driven topic. Just as Reimu finished the last piece of her meal, the lunch bell rang and signaled the end of the lunch break.

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After an easy P.E. session and peaceful Home Economics cooking lecture, Reimu walked over towards the school library. When she arrived, she didn't find her partner there, so she waited besides the entrance. It was a few minutes before Reimu saw a glimpse of the bright green hair running towards her. Her partner's clothes were slightly disheveled, and there was a pink, heated tinge to her face.

"Sorry I'm late!" Sanae breathlessly said as she arrived in front of Reimu. "I have P.E as my last period, so it took me a while to change and get here."

"It's no problem," Reimu replied in understanding. "If we're going to meet afterschool, I can wait a while."

Both of them waited for Sanae to catch her breath before walking through the library doors.

The library was located near the center of the school complex and housed a number of books, tomes, runes, and computers for students to use and learn from. As a place for learning, there were large tables set up for the students in the main center of the building with tall, filled bookshelves surrounding them. There were also private study rooms that could hold two to four students, and these were located on the upper and lower floors. But in all of her time at Genso High, Reimu had only been inside a few times, mainly because she went home to attend to her shrine maiden duties.

The shrine maiden duo walked through the foyer and stood in front of the wide opening expanse of the main room. Taking one final breath of air, Sanae turned towards Reimu.

"Where do you want to sit?" She inquired.

Reimu looked over the tables and contemplated the scattered groups of students. A few of them were studying and doing homework alone, but there were also a large number of pairs who were talking to each other. All of them were separated by a chair or two for limited privacy and space, so the only available spaces for their own little pairing were the places between the other students. While Reimu didn't mind if she had to sit in close proximity to them, all the same, it would be nice if she and Sanae also had space to talk as well.

"Let's try to get a private room first," Reimu finally said. "If not, then we can get a spot back here."

"Ok."

They turned right and went down stairs to the lower floor. The layout was similar to the middle floor, except instead of bookshelves, several soundproof rooms surrounded a grouping of tables in the middle. After some searching, they found an empty room that had several chairs and a large desk. Reimu closed the door once they were inside, and Sanae sat down in one of the chairs and brought out a pencil, a notebook, and Keine's list of topics. Reimu put her schoolbag off to the side and sat down in the chair next to her.

"I guess to begin, we could go over the list and see which ones we like," Sanae suggested. Reimu nodded her agreement, seeing that that was a good place to start as well.

For the next forty five minutes, they browsed over the numerous possible topics. Most of the time was spent looking up them on their phones and briefly researching what they were. As they worked and exchanged opinions on things, Reimu learned more about her partner and vice versa. For instance, Sanae was a bit like Reimu in that she preferred the easy way out if given (although much more willing than Reimu to go the extra mile). So for this history project, both of them discovered that they learned more towards the food topics because they required significantly less research, a shorter research paper, and more leniency if you brought in an edible example to the presentation. Another fun moment was when Reimu mentioned that Yukari Yakumo was her mother. Sanae instantly lit up upon discovering that her shrine maiden role model's daughter was her current partner.

"You have to let me meet her," she practically begged, and Reimu eventually agreed to let her and her mother meet one day.

By the end, there were three topics that they liked. They decided that they would each do more research tonight and choose the final one tomorrow. The last ten or so minutes of their hour were spent setting up a meetup schedule on several weekdays and weekends for the next few weeks. At last, it was a slightly tired but content Reimu and Sanae that stood outside the library doors again, accomplished with all that needed to be done.

"So tomorrow at lunch, we'll meet again to talk about the chosen topic?" Reimu double checked.

"Yep," Sanae affirmed.

"Alright. See you later, Sanae," Reimu said.

"Bye, Reimu," Sanae replied, and two girls finally turned around in different directions and left to go home. It had been a very long but productive day for Reimu, and she couldn't wait to drop onto her futon and take a nap. After her daily shrine maiden duties, of course.

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	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

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Reimu liked to think that the research project had been a breeze to complete and that the next few weeks flew by without any difficulty. But like with any kind of group project, it was a long and slow process intermingled with homework and tests that they had to do for other classes.

The way that Keine had set up to do presentations between her classes was interesting and an insane amount of organization on her part. Half of the students in one class would present with their partner at the regular period time, while the other half would be expected to present in their partners' period. To facilitate this, the History teacher had somehow garnered the permissions from the other teachers to pull students from whatever periods they were in to present with their partner as needed. Students who were not presenting would instead have their normal period with another teacher. Reimu had been bunched with the normal period group, so she and Sanae would have to present to a half-asleep audience in her first period of the day.

It had been a very hard decision, but in the end Reimu and Sanae chose to do a presentation on Taiwanese food instead of Thai cuisine and Indian curries. More specifically, Taiwanese breakfasts food, because it would be a nice wake-up snack for the other students to enjoy. The first week of their project was spent looking and drooling at many dishes of Taiwanese breakfast food and starting the research paper. The next two were used to finish up their paper and choosing exactly which foods they will make. And in the fourth and final week before the presentations, they tried to cook their selected dishes. Of course, that just meant that the fourth week had been the most eventful one…

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 _Saturday, Weekend Before Presentations_

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Reimu contemplated the setup she had going in the kitchen. Off to her left were rows of ingredients for cooking youtiao (cruller), turnip cakes, and scallion pancakes with more of the perishable ingredients in the refrigerator. Directly in front of her were knives, cutting boards, and a few stacks of plates and bowls. And on her right was the kitchen sink. After some thought, she shrugged, noted the time (12:32 a.m.), and turned around to go to the living room and wait for Sanae.

Today marked the first day that they will be attempting to cook their presentation examples, six days before their presentation day. While both she and Sanae felt that they were competent cooks, neither of them have really cooked anything other than Japanese food. To err on the side of caution, Sanae suggested that they try practicing at each other's homes on the weekend before the presentation and on the day before it. Reimu's home was first; partly because she had lost the coin toss, mostly because Sanae had yet to meet her mother/idol. But soon, the lucky girl was about to get her wish…in thirty minutes.

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A quick nap and half an hour later, Reimu woke up to the sounds of someone knocking on wood. She groaned and got up from her comfortable spot on the low couch and moved to open the sliding door. An excited Sanae dressed in casual clothing and carrying several bags of food greeted her when Reimu opened it.

"Hi Reimu!" the green haired girl said.

"Hi," Reimu replied. "Er, come in."

"Pardon my intrusion," Sanae politely added, taking off her shoes before stepping onto the half tatami/wooden floor. After giving the other girl slippers to wear indoors, Reimu grabbed a few of the large bags and walked over towards the kitchen. Sanae followed after her, looking around in interest.

"So, this is our kitchen. I took out anything we might use while cooking," Reimu stated upon arriving at her destination. She gently placed her bags on the floor near the countertop full of ingredients, and Sanae placed hers beside them. Reimu rubbed her hands a little and looked at her partner.

"So, what do you want to do?" She asked, half guessing the answer from the tittering girl.

"Can I meet your mother?" Sanae immediately responded.

"Sure," Reimu said. She tentatively called out, "Uhm, Mom?"

A few seconds later, a gap opened beside her, and her mother's head popped out.

"You called me, honey?" Yukari said curiously. Sanae squealed in delight, drawing the blonde-hair woman's attention.

"Eeeeee! Yukari Yakumo, I love you! You're my number one idol!" She exclaimed excitedly, positively bouncing off her feet.

"Oh my!" The former shrine maiden said in surprise. She stepped out from her gap to have her hand vigorously shook by the green-haired girl. Yukari glanced at Reimu with an amused expression before turning to address her adoring fan.

"Thank you, dear. Your name is Sanae, right? Reimu told me a little bit about you and your cooking project. I must say, I'm surprised you've heard of my maiden name. It's been a very long time since I was a shrine maiden," she said.

"Of course I heard of it! You're the very reason why I became a shrine maiden. Your elegance, control, and prowess. It just blew me away when I watched several old videos of you performing in front of millions when I was younger. And I can't believe I get to meet you in person! AAAhhhh!" Sanae fangirled.

Reimu could only blink at the un-Sanae-like behavior appearing before her. Yukari, on the other hand, became more and more delighted as Sanae recalled her former fame.

"Yukari-sama-" Sanae began.

"Please, call me Yukari. The sama makes me feel so old," Yukari interjected with a full on smile.

"Yukari," Sanae repeated, marveling at the casual use, "will it be alright if you could teach me a thing or two about being a shrine maiden?"

Yukari laughed merrily. "How can I say no to my number one fan? Come by our shrine on another day, and I'll teach you all the things I taught Reimu when she was younger."

Sanae could only beam. Yukari turned towards her daughter.

"I'll be in town today with Ran and Chen, so just call out if you need me. We should be back around 6. Toodles!" Yukari bid the girls goodbye, and with a twirl of her purple dress, she disappeared into a gap.

"Wow, your mother is just…wow," Sanae said in a blissful daze.

"I'm surprised she's willing to teach you. As far as I know, I'm the only who she really trained to be a shrine maiden," Reimu remarked.

"Wait really?" Sanae blurted in surprise.

"Yea. When I was younger and just started training, she would turn away fans or upcoming shrine maidens. Even when I became officially one, she continued to only listen and offer advice but never became directly involved in their training. For what reasons, I don't know," Reimu said, dwindling off in reminiscence.

Many people did indeed come to their shrine in search for their idolized shrine maiden, only for them to be gently let down by her. Child Reimu would be practicing her dances, and she would ever so often glimpse off to the side her mother lightly shaking her head to a hopeful attendee. Over time, these multiple rejections likely lead to a decrease in popularity and donations for their shrine, yet Yukari never bemoaned or complained about it. She put all her love into Reimu and her upbringing and training.

Although Reimu would never admit it to her mother, she had actually loved the sole attention she got from her mother as a result. It made her feel special and important in her still youthful life. Reimu shook her head of any more thoughts and turned towards Sanae.

"So, what do you want to cook first?"

After a bit of discussion, they decided to create the dough for the scallion pancakes first, as the turnip cakes and youtiao required much more prep work. Then once the dough had an hour to firm up inside the refrigerator, they would try to cook the scallion pancakes. So with at least one of them consistently checking on the instructions, they proceeded to create the dough. Reimu turned on some music to accompany them.

The prep work was slow going. As they both had never made Taiwanese fried food from scratch, Reimu and Sanae did their best to match the instructions and occasional pictures. Thankfully, unlike the school's kitchen where she has to share a workstation with three other students, Reimu's kitchen was spacious enough for them to focus on separate things, such as mixing the ingredients together or dicing the scallions. Flour still got everywhere, though, and when it came to kneading the freshly made dough, Reimu could have sworn that the lumps she folded in earlier appeared yet again under her hands. Despite that, Reimu had a little fun kneading the dough till it finally molded into a soft mass under her touch.

Sanae eventually started up a conversation about nothing in particular to pass the time better, with Reimu occasionally giving her opinion on things or when a topic seemed interesting. Now that they had met several times over the last few weeks, Reimu felt comfortable and relaxed in other girl's presence. She was an opposite to her friends, who were loud and could be very colorful with insults. They would gossip, argue, complain, and forget what they were talking about in the first place at times. Sanae, on the other hand, would pleasantly ask her what she liked to do on weekends or what she thought the special surprise event happening next week in the heart of Gensokyo was going to be. If Reimu had to put it aptly, Sanae was like a breath of fresh air that she would enjoy no matter what.

After some time, the pair had a few sizeable lumps of dough and a ton of scallion bits ready to be used over several cooking attempts. The next part of their instructions required them to let the dough rest for half an hour, so they set their respective lumps aside in large bowls and spent a few minutes cleaning up their messes. The remaining time was spent in the living room, where Sanae pulled a notebook from a bag and reviewed her notes from it and Reimu watched a boring comedy skit on the television. Once half an hour had passed, the shrine maiden pair went back to the kitchen and mixed in the scallions and rolled the dough into roundish disks. They carefully laid each disk on top of one another into small stacks, which cumulated into an easy-to-reach pile. Finally, it came the time to start the next, highly anticipated phase of their session, the cooking.

"I hope these turn out well," Sanae said, watching as Reimu turned the gas stove on and placed a nonstick skillet on top of it.

"I do too," Reimu agreed. She added a little vegetable oil to the pan and closed the oil container. A small, playful prank occurred to her, and she quickly suppressed the smile that was appearing on her face. Placing the oil container back in its original spot, Reimu turned towards Sanae, the teasing question already forming on her lips.

"So, would you like honors of cooking the first pancake?" She asked offhandedly, as if this was something she always asked of her guests. Reimu watched with hidden enjoyment as Sanae's eyes widened in realization.

"Oh no, I can't! We're at your home, so you should be the one to do it," she said quickly.

"Yea, but you are our guest, so you get first dibs," Reimu replied back, letting a small teasing smile out at the other girl's predicament.

Sanae open then closed her mouth. She went quiet for a bit, mulling over a possible response. Then, she proposed something unexpected.

"Then, how about we do it together?" Sanae suggested. Reimu was caught off guard.

"Huh? What?"

"Well, you want me to do it, and I want you do it. So, why don't we cook the first one together?"

Reimu still looked confused, so Sanae quickly added, "Like, we can place the first pancake down together and take turns flipping it."

"Um, that sounds like something a couple would do," Reimu said, a slight blush creeping up.

"Yeah, now that I'm thinking about it, it does," Sanae said, a pinker blush appearing on her face as she realized what she was saying. They quickly looked away from each other.

"…Well, I'm not opposed to it," Reimu ventured after a while. Sanae looked back.

"Eh? Really?"

"I mean, don't get me wrong, it does sound very strange for two people who are more or less strangers to do something like this. But it also makes it feel like there is some meaning there, I guess."

"…If you are sure, then," Sanae said hesitantly.

Reimu paused, shrugged, and nodded. It was kind of her fault that she started this issue. And in the end, the pancake was going to go into the pan and come out cooked. So together, Reimu and Sanae carefully balanced a pancake on one spatula with one hand each supporting it and held it over the pan.

"Here's to a successful project!" Sanae exclaimed.

Reimu grinned. "Cheers!"

In went the pancake with an oily sizzle. They took turns flipping the pancake when each felt it was browned enough on one side. And after a few minutes, the fried food was gently slid onto a plate with paper towels to absorb the leftover oils. Upon inspection, it looked like it had come out nearly like the example pictures. And when they each cut a piece and ate it, the pancake tasted amazing. Elated at their success, both Reimu and Sanae high fived each other.

They continued to cook pancakes in the same pan, trading off places and watching one another slowly cook and roughly learn when to flip them. Pancakes left the pan in various degrees of finish, some more burnt than others in certain places or slightly undercooked, but generally each item looked better than the last. Once they felt they were comfortable cooking them to an adequate degree, Reimu brought another pan for Sanae to cook on her own. After about an hour and a half, they each had several stacks of scallion pancakes surrounding them.

Reimu stretched her arms out and noticed that it was almost 4 p.m. in the afternoon. Sanae had been at her home for nearly three and a half hours. Since it was getting closer to 6 p.m., the pair agreed to make the two remaining food items tomorrow at Sanae's home/shrine and do as much as they can prepping the required ingredients for it. So in the next hour, they created the yutiao dough and turnip cake mix, stored them in Reimu's refrigerator, packaged up Sanae's scallion pancakes into containers, and cleaned up the kitchen until it was nearly spotless again. It was 5:43 p.m. by the time they finished.

Reimu saw Sanae off at the sliding door entrance again and promised to meet her at the Moriya Shrine around the same time she arrived today. Once Sanae double check she had everything that she brought with her plus her share of pancakes, she waved Reimu goodbye and took to the sky to fly back home. When the green-haired girl disappeared from her sight, Reimu closed the sliding doors and let out a satisfied sigh. Today had been a very productive and fun day for the two of them.

.

.

"My, Reimu, scallion pancakes for dinner?" Yukari said cheerfully.

When Yukari, Ran, and Chen returned home a little after 6 p.m., they found small stacks of scallion pancakes waiting for them on the dinner table. Leftovers from previous nights were also present. Reimu resisted the urge to roll her eyes and picked one off the pile in front of her. It was slightly burnt, the result of an early attempt at cooking.

"I hope you don't mind eating practice pancakes. It would be kind of a waste not to eat them otherwise," she explained. This was mainly directed to Ran and Chen.

"I think it's nice that we could eat something from a different region," Ran commented. The fox servant doled out a pancake for Chen and herself.

"How can I hate what my own daughter made?" Yukari added, and she bit into one particularly burnt one (Reimu had accidently looked away for a few moments for that one, distracted by what Sanae had said at the time). She chewed thoughtfully, swallowed, and smiled at Reimu.

"See? Edible!"

.

.

 _The Next Day_

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.

The next day, Sunday, found Reimu carefully flying towards the Moriya Shrine while holding several bags and small ice chests of the prepped ingredients and spare ingredients. It had occurred to her that she had no idea what the actual home looked like, but more than likely if she flew around long enough she will find it. When she reached the large region that was home to very large pillars and ponds, she once again tried not to think about the less-than-stellar state of her shrine and focused on finding the actual entrance. Thankfully, the actual Moriya Shrine structure was the only upstanding building/monolith which also laid in the center of the whole area.

As she flew closer to it, Reimu saw many groups of humans and foreigners praying in various parts of and outside the shrine. The Moriya Shrine was kind of special in that regard; faith was not tied to an exact location, and as long as people remained within the regional borders, they could pray anywhere and be heard by the Moriya Goddesses. The more serious prayers and wishes, though, tended to happen within the shrine, as perhaps people believed that closer proximity meant a louder voice. This wasn't true, as Sanae told her. The Moriya Goddesses heard each voice 'equally,' and within reason, but although they irregularly told their followers this, they continue to pray by proximity.

 _Not that it was too much of a problem_ , Sanae added, _but if people felt that they were closer to their_ Goddesses, _there was no harm to stop them from doing so._

Reimu floated above the shrine and tried to find an entrance that looked like it would be a viable gateway to an inhabited space. As she searched, she heard a voice call her name from below.

"Reimuuu!"

The visiting shrine maiden looked for the owner of the voice and saw Sanae waving to her from a closed off section. She flew down and landed in front of her. The area they were in was a quaint garden that had a small pond filled with lilypads established next to an arranged pile of rocks and pillars.

"Hey Sanae," Reimu greeted.

"Hi, Reimu," the green haired girl replied back, "Did you have any trouble carrying the food?"

"Not at all," Reimu said.

Sanae nodded and beckoned towards the open entrance behind her. "Well, come in."

Sanae entered through it, and Reimu followed her in. She saw that she had entered a small foyer for changing shoes. Sanae was busy rummaging through the short shoe cabinet and pulled out two fluffy slippers for Reimu to wear, of which Reimu thanked and put on. Afterwards, Sanae opened the door on the other side and led them through it.

The first word that came to Reimu's mind was 'huge.' And even then, 'huge' didn't even describe the whole scene. The tatami room she just entered was massive, easily the size of the Hakurei Shrine grounds. A very long table rested in the center with many floor mats surrounding it, and several smaller shrines and drawers lined the walls to complete the design.

Sanae noticed Reimu's awestruck expression and sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck.

"Oh, um, this is the special dining room. The Moriya Goddesses and I don't use this place often, but we do use it to accommodate large groups of people sometimes," Sanae said awkwardly. "It's like a second home, I guess, complete with its own kitchen and rooms."

"Second?" Reimu squeaked.

"Yea. When we first came to Gensokyo, Kanako-sama figured we were due for an upgrade and build 'bigger' as we went," Sanae explained. "Most of our initial donations were spent on renovations and on land. Then as we got more and more faith going, we just kept building for larger and larger groups."

"Oh…" Reimu said, dwindling off.

"We actually still live in the original designs for the shrine. So we're going there," Sanae quickly reassured, so as to not severely overwhelm the poor shrine maiden from the sheer amount of wealth. "I don't personally like this area and neither does Suwako-sama."

Sanae took one last look around the empty but vast dining room and then led Reimu through another door to the far right. As they walked through the long corridor that followed, a question occurred to Reimu.

"Where are the Moriya Goddesses now?"

"I told them that I wouldn't be able to perform my shrine maiden duties due to a school project today, so they are handling all the faith gathering, " the green haired shrine maiden replied. She paused and gave a small laugh. "Suwako-sama is actually kind of excited to see what we will cook. They liked the scallion pancakes I brought back, even if they were burnt a bit."

After passing by many doors, Sanae and Reimu arrived at a worn looking door. It had an old wooden plaque above it that had badly painted on words that crudely read "No Frogs or Snakes Allowed."

At Reimu's curious look, Sanae explained, "Just something I made when I was a child. Frogs and snakes kept appearing in my room so much, that I thought having a sign would stop them from coming in. Suwako-sama thought it was funny and put it there when we came to Gensokyo."

Sanae opened the door, and Reimu finally saw what looked like a well lived-in and furnished home. They walked through and Sanae closed the door after her. Taking in the sight, Reimu believed she was in the living room. A couch and several bean bag chairs faced large TV set, with a small table in the center of them. There was a relative coziness to it, comparable to Reimu's own home, with books neatly stacked in shelves and pictures lining the walls. Reimu saw a young Sanae in various scenes and beaming faces, sometimes standing or playing with a person who Reimu believed were the Moriya Goddesses.

"Sorry, it might a little messy," Sanae nervously stated, breaking Reimu from thought.

"Oh no, it's fine," Reimu answered, smiling at the other girl. "I'm just amazed, since your home just feels so much like you. Warm and comforting."

"Oh, thank you," Sanae said, faintly blushing from the compliment.

Quickly getting back her composure, Sanae led Reimu through the living room to the kitchen. Once there, Reimu placed the food bags down onto the floor, and Sanae began taking out pans and wire racks for them to use.

The second day of practicing cooking Taiwanese food was more lax compared to yesterday, as half of the work had been in the ingredient preparation. After a little bit of planning and organization, Reimu and Sanae prepared to fry the youtiao dough. The dough had slightly softened during the journey, so it was easier for them to cut and shape down to sizeable pieces to fry. A large panful of oil was heated up, and then they were ready to cook.

Reimu found cooking the youtiao extremely pleasant. Although they did have to constantly bath and move the youtiao sticks using chopsticks to cook it evenly, it was fascinating to watch them puff up to a large size and brown. Their sticks, of course, had varying degrees of crispiness once they came out of the oil, but that was fine for making practice food.

They did have one issue during the session, though.

"Ow!" Sanae hissed in pain and quickly pulled her hand back from the pan.

"Are you ok?" Reimu asked, concerned.

"I think so," Sanae said. The youtiao stick that she had been picking up accidentally slipped from her chopsticks, splashing some of the bubbling oil upwards and onto her hand.

"Here, let me handle the youtiao," Reimu said, and she took the chopsticks from the poor girl and immediately removed the offending piece of food and turned the heat off. Sanae turned on the kitchen sink near her and ran the cold water over the afflicted skin. Reimu saw that a sizeable amount had landed on it, showing off red and welting marks. After ten minutes, Sanae shut the water off and gently felt her still reddened hand. She winced.

"Bad?" Reimu hazarded after seeing her partner in pain.

Sanae nodded and thought for a bit. Making up her mind, her eyes flicked back to Reimu.

"Sorry, Reimu. I'll be gone for a bit to find Kanako-sama or Suwako-sama," She apologized. "I need their permission to perform a small miracle and heal this."

"You can do that?" Reimu said curiously.

Sanae nodded again, explaining, "As a Moriya shrine maiden, I'm able to perform miracles for people. But usually Kanako-sama or Suwako-sama are there to supervise and help me."

"I'll be back in a few minutes," Sanae repeated apologetically, and she exited the kitchen. Reimu leaned back against the kitchen counter to wait and mulled over what Sanae had said.

After a few tense minutes, Sanae returned with a bright smile and a healed hand. She had also returned with a companion.

"So, this is the fabled partner who helped make those delicious pancakes," the person enthused.

Reimu saw that the newcomer was a seemingly young girl who was roughly half the height of Sanae and wore an interesting attire. It was both like and unlike her own shrine maiden clothing, even having white flowing sleeves, but the dress was purple and had frogs on them. In addition, she wore a large brown hat with two large eyeballs things on top.

"Yes, Suwako-sama," Sanae assented deferentially. The Moriya Goddess grinned and bounded over to Reimu.

"Hello, and welcome to our humble, little home that is the actual Moriya Shrine! My name is Suwako Moriya, one of the resident goddesses that lives here," she greeted, spreading her arms wide. Then she gave a quick hug to the black haired girl.

Reimu was only frozen for a moment before she realized her manners, "Oh um, thank you for having me too. I'm Reimu."

"Reimu," Suwako repeated, rolling the name off of her tongue, "How has our dear Sanae been at school? A good girl? A bad one? Someone who is in need of a bit of punishment regardless?"

The froggy goddess grinned again.

"We're, uh, just partners for this school project," Reimu replied, bewildered by the wild conclusions the goddess was coming to.

"Mmm, really? I could have sworn you two were married or something, given the way that our dear Sanae described her cooking session yesterday and how good the food tasted," Suwako teased. At this, both Sanae and Reimu turned a deep red.

"I kid, I kid! But really, thank you for being Sanae's partner. I haven't seen her this relaxed since we came to Gensokyo a few years ago," Suwako continued.

"Su-Suwako-sama," Sanae lightly protested.

"…You're welcome?" Reimu said in lack of anything else. The Moriya Goddess beamed and turned back to Sanae.

"I have to go back now. Kanako might actually be trying to put on a lightshow or something, and that never turns out well," she said. "I look forward to whatever you guys are making today!"

And just like that, the hyperactive froggy goddess hugged Sanae and ran off from the kitchen, leaving the two shrine maidens alone again. It was silent for a bit in the kitchen, Reimu still processing what just happened.

"I apologize for Suwako-sama's behavior," Sanae eventually said, "I've never seen her greet someone so openly after only a few seconds."

"Was she really that happy after you burned your hand?" Reimu questioned.

"I might have mentioned that you were the daughter of Yukari Yakumo last night, and that might have had something to do with it," Sanae confessed. "She was kind of interested in meeting you."

Reimu pondered a bit then shrugged. She had experienced weirder things before, no thanks to her mom's pranks and Marisa's experiments suddenly going off whenever she visited her friend's home. An eccentric goddess who was prone to hugging ranked pretty far down the list. Reimu turned back to the stove and relit the heat for the pan.

Thankfully, there were no more incidents that resulted in oil burns. Both Sanae and Reimu remained extra careful in their handling of the remaining youtiao dough and when they proceeded to cook all of the turnip cakes (which, again, turned out in various forms of cooked and burnt). By the time they finished cooking everything and cleaning up Sanae's kitchen, it was a little over 5 p.m. The shrine maiden pair were a little worn out and tired when they stood outside again in the little garden, but they still double checked things with each other.

Reimu readjusted her grip on the bags containing the new practice food and looked at Sanae once she was satisfied.

"Think we are mostly ready for presentation?" She said.

"I think we are. We cooked for quite a long time," Sanae responded contentedly. She gave a little laugh. "Although I have to say, I might be a little excited for the presentation to come so we can show off our hard work."

"How do you want to split up creating the food items for the final day?" Sanae further asked.

"Mmm, I can prepare the scallion pancakes and youtiao together, since they are basically the same thing, and you can do the turnip cakes. Sound good?" Reimu suggested.

"Sounds good. Although, am I not doing the youtiao because I burned myself earlier?" the green haired girl inquired.

"Er, yea," Reimu admitted.

"Aw, how sweet of you," Sanae teased. Reimu almost slightly blushed and coughed to the side.

"Well, I'm off now. See you at school, Sanae," she said.

"Bye, Reimu," Sanae said, and she waved goodbye as Reimu flew off to return home.

.

.

 _Day of the Presentations_

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.

On the day of the presentations, both Reimu and Sanae were sitting next each other in two shared desks in Classroom 1A. Presently, they had watched a train wreck of a presentation on phoenixes and immortality from Mokou and Kaguya, an interesting demonstration of flower arranging by Youmu and Hatate, and an eye-opening introduction to psychology by Sumeriko and Satori. Reimu found it interesting how most of the groups shared a topic that was a compromise of their interests.

After Sumeriko and Satori received their applause and sat down, Keine cleared her throat and called on the next group.

"Reimu Hakurei and Sanae Kochiya."

The two girls shared a look and carefully carried the platter of food and bowls of sauces and soymilk from Reimu's and Sanae's desks to the front of the room, where a table had been set up. A low murmur of interest rose as Reimu took off the plastic cover and the smell of the food wafted through the room.

With one last reassuring look from Reimu, Sanae began their presentation.

"For this project, we would like to present to you Taiwanese breakfast food…"

.

.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Quick A/N: I changed the time of which Chapter 1 starts, which is now Early October. So by start of Chapter 5, we are in mid-December.

Song recommendation available to hear on Youtube:

Hundred Years of Love (2011) – Vocaloid, Hatsune Miku

Produced by Rerulili

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.

"Wow. Keine-sensei just walked away like nothing happened!"

"Well, I wouldn't have said anything in that situation either," Reisen said slowly.

"I mean, yea, I probably wouldn't have said anything in front of everyone too, but come on! I think saying 'thank you' or 'I'm sorry' would have been tons better than awkward silence.' Marisa said. Reisen shrugged noncommittedly.

"Poor Mokou," Youmu summed up. Reimu silently agreed with her.

It has been a few weeks since Reimu and Sanae presented their research project on Taiwanese breakfast food. The grades for each partner pairing varied widely because of Keine's strict grading and unusual pairings, but Reimu and Sanae had achieved an A for their efforts. Even Marisa, Alice, and Patchouli had managed to scrape an A, although it was probably due to last two's efforts (incidentally, their project was on magical animated fireworks. In reality, their presentation was on "What happens when you stuff a doll full of magical gunpowder and why you should not do that." Keine gave their whole group a stern lesson on safety awareness afterwards). With the presentations over, the students in Reimu's class looked forward to some much needed relaxation and peace.

Unfortunately, the loom of exams descended upon them directly after. Exams were taken very seriously at Genso High, and many of their teachers drilled this into them on a regular basis. Yuuka Kazami in particular loved to remind them that if they failed her exams, they can expect her personal and undivided attention in the next semester. Thus, many students became hermit-like and avoided any social contact for a while to study like their life literally depended on it.

Reimu went about studying like she always had, which was to do it the day before. It worked out well enough for her, so she saw no reason to stop procrastinating.

There was one change in her life though. Her mother had been serious for once about her offer to teach Sanae. So whenever she could go, Sanae accompanied Reimu home to the Hakurei Shrine to be tutored by Yukari. But unlike with Reimu, Yukari was less lenient with Sanae, regularly pointing out bad foot and hand positions to the point that Reimu thought her mother was being very picky and unfair. The green haired girl, rather than be offended, soaked up the criticism and put more effort as needed with each lesson. When the week of their exams came, Sanae briefly stopped coming over to focus on her own studies.

While the exam week was not the most grueling and tedious experience that Reimu had had to date (the #1 spot belonged to the high school entrance exams), they certainly ranked far up it. All the same, she was immensely relieved when they finally ended. To celebrate the end of their last exam and the beginning of their winter break, Reimu's group of friends decided to spend some time afterschool at a café and then go karaoke for a while. They had been waiting for Alice and Patchouli to arrive and meet them at the front of the school building entrance when a notable disturbance occurred.

Keine-sensei was walking with the leaving stream of students and had just past their group when Mokou suddenly appeared at the school building entrance and shouted "Wait! I love you Keine-sensei!" at the top of her lungs. Mokou's shout slowed the flow of students and caused them to look over to the now frozen and beet red history teacher. For a second, Reimu thought she was going to turn around and respond, but then Keine jerkily resumed walking towards the school entrance, albeit a little faster than previously seen. Students began to whisper and laugh at the now shocked and presumably heartbroken confessor, who no doubt would be the #1 gossip in Genso High for quite a while. After some time, Mokou awkwardly shuffled back inside the building, her head down in very deep shame and embarrassment.

"I wonder what caused her to confess," Udonge pondered.

"Maybe she drank a love potion. Or maybe she experienced a sudden vision of the future, and if she didn't confess right then and there at that moment, it would create a divergence in the timeline and cause her to never ever confess to her true love again," Marisa exclaimed, causing the rest of her friends to roll their eyes.

"Or maybe it's just combined stress from having to deal with Kaguya, exams, and her parents?" Reimu deadpanned.

"Nahhh, it can't be that simple, ze."

"I think you've watched too many movies, Marisa," Youmu said.

"What was that about Marisa?" Alice and Patchouli had finally arrived at their meeting spot. Marisa turned towards them and greeted, "Oh, nothing! But hey, did you see what happened earlier?"

Another lengthy and gossipy session about Keine and Mokou proceeded, but soon Reimu and company finally headed off to enjoy themselves for a few hours.

.

.

Reimu sipped from her pineapple-mango-orange juice mix happily as several cats milled around or in the laps of her friends in their favorite cat café. While it was not the largest one in Gensokyo, this café had the friendliest cats they have ever petted. For a while, she and her friends simply relaxed and cuddled with their respective pets.

"So, what are you guys doing for the winter break?" Alice eventually asked around. "I'm going to Old Hell for a few days and getting some exclusive fabric and ribbon supplies there."

"Tending to Yuyuko-sama like always," Youmu shrugged.

"Same," Reisen said.

"I'm gonna explore some abandoned libraries in a few different cities and see what I can discover, ze!" Marisa replied.

"…Same," Patchouli timidly answered. Alice glared at the bookish girl.

"Laze around, I suppose. Maybe have a good Christmas and then begin the painstaking process of preparing for New Year's visits," Reimu answered.

"Aw, poor Reimu. Here, have my cat," Alice consoled slightly smirking, placing her furry animal onto Reimu's lap. The other girls slowly caught on and placed their cats on the poor shrine maiden till she was covered from head to toe.

"Haha, very funny," Reimu said, but she was glad for the comfort all the same.

After an hour, Reimu and her friends felt they had enough cuteness to last a lifetime and soon got up to leave. A few of the trained cats meowed for them to stay, which absolutely broke their hearts, but they had other fun things to do. As they exited the café, she noticed Aya and Hatate walking with some other students of Class 1B heading towards them. The sharp eyed crow spotted them and waved.

"Hey girls!" She called out. Reimu and her friends waved back and greeted her.

"Sup Aya. What are you up to?" Marisa asked.

"We're going to go karaoke," Aya answered. She then had a thought. "Say, do you girls want to come? We get a special 10% discount for parties larger than 10, and there's 12 of us right now."

Reimu looked closer and saw that Aya and Hatate were with Nitori Kawashiro, Momiji Inubashiri, Hina Kagiyama, and surprisingly, Sanae. She caught the other girl's eye, and Sanae smiled at her. Before Reimu could saying anything, Marisa spoke for them.

"Sure, why not. We were also headed towards karaoke too!"

"I don't mind," Alice said with a noncommittal shrug. The rest of Reimu's friends also agreed, and together their combined group walked over to their destination. Reimu slowly slinked behind the group to walk with Sanae.

"Hey," she greeted.

"Hey Reimu," Sanae replied back. "How are you?"

"I'm doing ok. You don't have to attend to your shrine today?" Reimu said curiously.

"Nope. Kanako-sama and Suwako-sama usually let me enjoy the first few days of my breaks off and manage everything, "Sanae replied brightly. "It works out pretty well, since it does get busy around Christmas and New Year for us."

"I see."

"I've only ever been to karaoke with my goddesses, so this is pretty exciting for me to go with friends," Sanae continued. "It's my first time doing karaoke in Gensokyo, too."

"It's pretty fun. Karaoke here has a very wide selection of songs. It can also get very hectic, especially with Marisa," Reimu said, recalling how many of their karaoke sessions often got rowdy and loud with them singing along together chaotically.

"I heard my name! What's up Reimu?" Marisa walked besides Reimu and popped into their conversation. "Hey, I think I remember you from Keine's presentation. Hello!"

"Uhm, hi. I'm Sanae," Sanae said politely introducing herself.

After Sanae introduced herself to the affable witch, Reimu, Sanae, and Marisa chatted about the highs and lows of Gensokyo's karaoke till they reached the actual place. Aya took charge again and talked to the employee for renting a few hours use. She even somehow smooth talked her way into getting a 20% discount in exchange for an ad and publicity in their school's newspaper. Reimu's group paid for their share of the cost and then headed off to one of the karaoke's larger and fancier rooms. Upon seeing it, Reimu had to admit that she didn't expect such a lavish setup inside a karaoke establishment. There were several puffy couches and tables for them to sit around, controllable lights and spotlights, screens and sound systems for surround sound and display, and an honest to goodness miniature idol stage for them to sing on if they wanted to.

The teenage girls settled themselves around the tables and spent a few minutes ordering any food or drinks they wanted and setting up songs. Although Reimu's friends did eat earlier, they ordered a few snacks to satisfy them for the next few hours. Once their treats came, Marisa stood up with her cup of melon soda.

"Hey all! I'm gonna keep this short and just say, congrats on getting through exams! Here's to forgetting about them for a few weeks and enjoying our break! Let's get this party on, ze!"

Everyone in the room cheered and began their afternoon of melodic fun. Marisa as always sang a fast and peppy song offbeat, Reimu just picked a random song from the selection, Alice and Youmu both sung slow and peaceful songs, Patchouli brought out her inner love for anime, and Reisen was into hip hop songs. Nitori picked an interesting technobeat remix, Aya and Hatate sang an embarrassing duet, Momiji a strange song parody, Hina chose a dark and gloomy theme in mind, and Sanae's song was soothing and melodic. As each person sung their piece, the rest of the group would sometimes sing along with them and clapped and cheered when they finished. Once they all had sung at least once, Aya stood up with twelve paper strips in her hand.

"Ayaya, surprise rounds! Everyone pick another song and draw a number from me. As each song is cued, I'll call out a number, and that person has to sing whatever is playing! That includes duos, so pick your craziest, fastest, most heart-wrenching song you got! Also, you have to do it on the idol stage!"

Reimu immediately became suspicious of the crow, if only because she knew what Aya was like. However, she couldn't see a camera or recording device on Aya for her to take advantage of, and everyone except for a few like Patchouli and Nitori seemed to entertain the idea of randomized karaoke. So Reimu reluctantly picked a paper strip from the devious crow and saw that she got number 6. She picked another random song from her karaoke tablet and added it to the queue.

"Great! Now that everyone is done, the first person to go is number 9!" Aya announced.

"Mukyu!"

Number 9 turned out to be Patchouli. Reimu felt sorry for her going first and even sorrier when the song turned out to be an extremely fast rap mix. The poor girl's face was beet red for the whole duration, and she stuttered a lot to keep up with the seemingly incomprehensible rapper's rap. A few people laughed, but everyone applauded for her efforts when she finished, Aya being the loudest.

"Wooo, go Patchouli! Next is number 4!"

Youmu had to sing a pop idol song, which included doing the idol choreography.

"Number 11!"

Hina could do a surprisingly high pitched voice for an anime song.

"Next up, two people are going to sing this song! Number 6 and Number 2!"

Reimu tentatively stood up and saw Sanae stand up as well. She walked over towards the stage and picked up the second microphone on the nearby stand as Sanae was passed hers by Hina. When both of them were ready, Aya gave them both thumbs up and started the song.

"Good luck!" She called out.

The lights dimmed to a rosy red and blue mix, and a slow and soulful tune began to play. Reimu briefly saw the song name on the displays across from her before the lyrics faded in.

.

Hundred Years of Love (2011) – Vocaloid, Hatsune Miku

Produced by Rerulili

.

 _Ever since I met you_

 _Everything has started to look different_

 _The voice of the wind, the colors of words_

 _It's as if I'm being enveloped in a cradle_

 _._

 _The changing seasons that I've spent with you_

 _I considered all of them precious to me_

 _The sunlight of summer, the scent of winter_

 _They made me feel a reason to live_

 _._

 _Gentle and warm_

 _I'm shedding so many tears_

 _I'm happy, but it's painful_

 _I'm overflowing so much with your presence_

 _._

 _Even if time passes, I will never wake up_

 _From this hundred-year-old love_

 _._

 _I wonder how much time has passed_

 _Since you fell asleep_

 _The pulsing of the stars, the light of the moon_

 _I hope they will gently bless you_

 _._

 _I will never forget_

 _The things you taught me_

 _Our song, the warmth of people_

 _Because they are proof that I'm alive_

 _._

 _Gentle and warm_

 _It's making my chest tighten so much_

 _I want to see you, I want to see you_

 _I love you so much_

 _._

 _Even if time passes, it will never fade_

 _Our eternal love_

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As she sang, Reimu was slightly embarrassed that she was sometimes out of tune and offbeat. And compared to her, Sanae sounded leagues better. Reimu briefly glanced at the green haired girl by her side and saw how happy and delighted she was singing with another person. She noted how Sanae almost glowed in the soft spotlight, her normally green hair casting off a reddish glow. Sanae noticed her partner staring and winked at her, a wider smile appearing on her face as she continued to sing the lyrics to the love song. Reimu instantly blushed and flustered up the next few lines, her heart strangely throbbing a little.

The song soon ended, and all of their friends cheered for them. Reimu lowered her mic and grinned at Sanae, who also beamed back at their success. They high fived each other and returned to their seats.

Every person in the room including Aya herself went through her hellish karaoke event, but they all had a fun time seeing one another stumble through a difficult or unforeseen song and sympathizing with her. By the time the last person finished, it was getting close to the end of their allotted time, so anyone who wanted to sing a few more rounds did so. When they finally exited the karaoke place, it was almost 8 p.m.

"Ah, nothing like singing away your stress and anger," Marisa said, stretching her arms outwards in the cool evening air.

"You nearly busted our ears with that last one screaming your head off," Alice accused.

Marisa sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. "Hehe, sorry about that, Alice. In my defense, heavy metal is just a lot of screaming."

Her doll obsessed friend just sighed.

"We should do this again sometime. It was great seeing everyone sing like fish out of water," Aya exclaimed. She added under her breath, "I got a lot of great footage too."

"What was that, Aya?" Reimu said, barely catching the last part.

"Er, nothing~. Anyways, it's quite late for me. Thanks for the wonderful time! See you girls in a few weeks!"

"Bye Aya!"

"Have a good break, Aya!"

The crow tengu waved goodbye and rocketed upwards into the sky to fly home. One by one, Reimu's friends and those of Class 1B also said goodbye and left through various ways till only Reimu and Sanae were left standing in front of the karaoke entrance. Sanae adjusted her backpack and faced Reimu.

"Well, we're the last ones," she said. "It was very fun doing that duet with you."

"It definitely was. Will you be alright getting home?" Reimu asked.

"I think so. I don't really like flying home in the dark, but I'll manage. Oh, and before I forget, I'll be coming over again for Yukari's lessons in a few days. But don't worry, I'll call first before I come over! See you then, Reimu!" Sanae said, and she turned to fly in the direction of Moriya Shrine.

As Sanae was about to take off, Reimu's heart did that strange throb again. Suddenly, Reimu didn't want her to leave just yet.

"Wait! Um," Reimu accidently blurted out. Sanae turned back towards her, a curious look on her face.

"Uhhh, do you want me to call my mother?" She said weakly. "She can gap you directly home, and you can tell her you'll be coming over."

Sanae was briefly surprised before she answered in relief, "If that is alright. That would be lovely, Reimu."

Reimu did so, and after a bit of explanation, Yukari gapped both teenage girls directly at Moriya Shrine's side entrance. Sanae thanked Yukari profusely and let her know that she was resuming her lessons with her in a few days. The older woman warmly took note of it, and Reimu waved goodbye as the green-haired girl entered her home. Yukari casually glanced at her daughter before letting out a small laugh.

"What?" Reimu said, slightly annoyed.

"Oh, nothing Reimu. Just that you remind me of me when I was younger," Yukari said with a knowing smile.

And before her daughter could do anything else, Yukari gapped them both home. As expected of her unpredictable mother, Reimu landed face first on her futon. She angrily sat up to berate the insufferable adult, but she was nowhere to be found.

"Reimu, when you are ready, come over for dinner. Ran is heating up a portion for you right now," Yukari's voiced trailed to her from the open doorway.

Reimu's anger ebbed away, and she groaned and fell back onto her futon. After a minute, she sat back up and began taking off her shoes and socks.

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	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

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 _A few days after Chapter 5, Winter Break_

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"Mrs. and Miss Hakurei, do you have any clothes that need to be washed?"

"I do indeed, Ran!"

"Yea."

Reimu gently nudged Chen off of her to get up from the couch to collect the dirty laundry basket in her room. Chen grumbled a little but quickly returned her attention back to the action movie that was playing on the television. Yukari had already gapped hers into Ran's waiting hands by the time Reimu came back to the living room. She gave the fox servant her basket, who bowed before making her way to the laundry room. Since she was already standing, Reimu decided she wanted a drink from the refrigerator.

"Tea please, Reimu!"

The black haired girl scowled at her mother, who had noticed her about to enter the kitchen, but she complied and returned with a cup of cranberry juice and a warm cup of tea. She gave her mother her drink and carefully sat back down onto the couch. She took a sip and swallowed contentedly.

The mother and daughter pair resumed watching the movie, which was in its final act. Reimu rolled her eyes as the main antagonist made some cheesy one-liner about possessing the most destructive power ever known in his hands, only for the protagonist to shoot him dead mid-speech and hold said most destructive power in _his_ hands. She supposed that it was rightly so, given how much trouble and crap the protagonist went through to get up to this point. The last few scenes ended with the protagonist returning to his hometown and proposed to his girlfriend with a ring.

"Well, that was boring," Reimu said as the credits started to play. "All he did was shoot once. Everyone else did everything for him."

"I thought it was sweet. He married a cute girl and lived happily ever after," Yukari said.

"Did you see how the giant robot punched through all those other robots?" Chen said excitedly. "It didn't even move when they fired a rocket at it!"

"…When you put it that way, it sounds like we weren't watching the same movie," Reimu replied.

Yukari merrily laughed and looked at the wall clock, which read close 3 p.m.

"Oh, it seems we timed the movie right. Sanae is coming in a few minutes," Yukari clapped in delight. She stood up and went to change into outdoor clothing for the first shrine maiden lesson since Reimu's exam week. Reimu picked up the remote and turned off the television as Chen did a catlike stretch. After mewing in relief, Chen nudged the older girl.

"Hey hey, Reimu. Let's go play danmaku!"

"Er…" Reimu hesitated. She really wanted to go take a nap after that boring movie, but just then Ran entered the living room.

"…Sure Chen. After Sanae comes, I'll play with you."

"Yay!" Chen yelled happily. She jumped up and ran towards the foyer to put on her shoes. Ran gave Reimu an approving smile before picking up Yukari's empty cup and, with Reimu's permission, her cup as well.

Sanae arrived at the Hakurei Shrine with a small flurry of wind accompanying her. Reimu and her mother greeted her when she lightly landed in the middle of the shrine grounds.

"Hey, Sanae!" Reimu waved.

"Welcome back Sanae!" Yukari said cheerily.

"Hello Reimu and Yukari!" Sanae replied back with a wide smile.

Once they exchanged pleasantries, Yukari resumed teaching Sanae, and Reimu played danmaku with Chen in the skies above. In between spellcards, Reimu looked down to see how Sanae was faring under her mother's tutelage. She was currently trying to master the Hakurei traditional dance #6, which involved quite a bit of steady footwork and precise movements. Reimu could see the poor girl struggle to keep her balance at certain points and sympathized with her; it personally took her a few weeks to fully master the dance when she was a child, and even now she had to practice it ever so often to be able to perform it correctly. But Sanae persevered as best as she could.

After an hour of play, Reimu had worked up a light sweat. Ran came out with a tray of snacks and tea, and the four of them took the chance to have a small break. Chen draped herself across her mother's lap and played with her while the three shrine maidens talked amicably to one other.

"So, Sanae, what will you be doing for your Christmas break?" Yukari asked.

"Not much, I suppose. Our shrine is always so busy around the holidays, so I don't get much of the break except for the first few days," Sanae said. "How about the Hakurei Shrine? Is it the same?"

"We close the shrine for Christmas, but we still have a couple hundred come during New Years. Although I can imagine not as busy as Moriya Shrine would be," Yukari lightly replied.

"What do you do for New Years? For us, we tend to run for a week so that everyone can get a chance to pray or donate," Sanae compared in curiosity.

"Hmm, I wonder," Yukari said feigning ignorance. "What do you do for New Years, Reimu?"

Reimu glared at her mother before answering Sanae, "I perform a few of the Hakurei shrine rituals and more elaborate dances over several hours. That's in addition to selling out ema's and anything else we have, sweeping the grounds of any garbage, and assisting anyone who needs it. It's exhausting, and if a certain _someone_ told me that this was going to be part of my job each year, I would've backed out so hard my mother would have felt pregnancy pains again."

Yukari smiled sweetly at her daughter. "Aw, thanks sweetie. I love you very much, too."

Reimu briefly rolled her eyes at her mother and turned back towards Sanae to continue complaining. But she found the green-haired girl looking at her like in a new light.

"You do those dances several times and do the other shrine duties?" Sanae said in awe.

Reimu felt herself blush a little in embarrassment. "It's not that impressive. I get several breaks in between them. Mom, Ran, and Chen help, too."

"Not impressive?! Reimu, what are you saying? At the Moriya Shrine, we have a number of people to help manage everything for us. Even I only do one or two ceremonial rituals per day in front of a large crowd. I bet you do every Hakurei ritual and dance perfectly each time!" Sanae exclaimed, picking up Reimu's hands and holding them. "Compared to me, you are an amazing shrine maiden, Reimu."

Reimu's heartbeat suddenly picked up as she felt the other girl's soft and inviting hands cover hers. Her face turned beet red.

"Eh, uhm, thank you, Sanae" she stammered.

Yukari smiled at the scene and then clapped her hands. "I think that is enough resting for now. Are you ready to start again, Sanae?"

"Yes, Yukari," Sanae replied, "After hearing about Reimu, I feel more ready to learn than ever!"

The green-haired girl let go of Reimu's hands and followed her mentor back to the open space they were practicing in. Ran took the resuming lesson as a sign to start preparing dinner and led Chen inside to wash up and help her. As she heard the soft swish of green clothing and Yukari's encouraging remarks, Reimu felt her hands. They tingled from Sanae's touch and lingering warmth. Without really knowing why, Reimu decided to remain outside to watch Sanae perform the dance routines again and again until it was near sunset and dinnertime. Sanae checked her next lesson time with Yukari, waved goodbye to her and Reimu, and took off to fly back home.

"Sanae is such a joy to work with. She reminds me of when I was teaching you, Reimu," Yukari said, watching the green haired girl slowly become smaller in the sky.

"Uh huh…," Reimu said. After a few seconds she tentatively asked, "Hey, Mom?"

"Yes, dear?"

"Why did you agree to teach Sanae?" Reimu inquired. The question she wanted the answer to the most finally came out.

Yukari looked at her daughter in surprise then said teasingly, "Aw, Reimu~. Do I hear a little jealously?"

"What jealously? I'm just asking because you never agreed to teach anyone else before her," Reimu retorted.

Yukari smiled and tightly hugged Reimu, who balked at the action.

"Don't worry, Reimu. You'll always be my number one shrine maiden and daughter," she reassured.

"I'm your only daughter, and you still haven't answered me," Reimu said, squirming to get away. Yukari let go of her rebellious charge and motioned for them to sit down on the veranda.

"Well, to answer your question," Yukari began once they were seated, "I know you never questioned it when you were younger, but many of the shrine maidens who asked me wanted my guidance for fame, money, prestige, knowledge, or acceptance. Absolutely reasonable things, but they were better off learning from others than from me, as I had no interest in teaching those kind of people."

"Sanae, though, is a bit different. Not so different from your regular teenage girl, but different because she wanted to be a shrine maiden for others," Yukari answered. "The first time I met her, I had a feeling that she wanted nothing but the best for those around her. A good person who cherishes her environment and friends."

"That isn't to say that the shrine maidens before her weren't like that, but Sanae has the purest of hearts that I haven't seen since you were born. She's someone that I could teach about the importance of being a shrine maiden and believe in being one. A person worthy of learning the Hakurei traditions but not only for herself. And my first impressions are usually never wrong."

Reimu looked away as Yukari finished talking. The way Yukari talked about Sanae made Reimu do a small retrospection. She could now see why Yukari would teach Sanae, but what about herself? She had essentially been a shrine maiden from the start of her birth, but did that make her worthy enough to be the Hakurei shrine maiden? Or was she taught simply because she was her daughter?

Ugh, this is why Reimu sometimes preferred it when her mother showed her childish or playful side to her. She will never be used to those rare but deep or emotional conversations with her. Yukari noticed Reimu's somewhat despondent mood and gave a tender hug again.

"Or maybe I was just done with being the nasty old cranky shrine maiden and wanted to just train Reimu's only other shrine maiden friend so she wouldn't be so lonely. Who knows?" She said teasingly.

"Ugh, mom," Reimu groaned, but she accepted the hug this time.

"Mrs. and Miss Hakurei, dinner is ready!" Ran's voice called out from the open sliding doors.

"Foods ready!" Chen's own voiced added.

Yukari and Reimu pulled away from the hug when they heard the others calling to them.

"My, what great timing!" Yukari exclaimed, and she helped Reimu up to walk back inside their home. As they stepped through the sliding doors and onto soft wooden flooring, Reimu just had to ask it.

"Why did you teach me and only me when I was younger?" Reimu said.

Yukari gave her daughter the biggest smile she had that day. "Because I was interested in having my own family and teaching my daughter everything I knew and better."

And with that, Yukari closed the sliding doors behind to have dinner with everyone.

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End file.
